Climate Files 62 / EPA Priorities
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson Discusses 2010 EPA Priorities
On March 8, 2010, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson spoke to the National Press Club on progress made by the agency in 2009 and priorities for 2010. She discussed actions on climate change, America’s waters and EPA’s efforts to expand the conversation on environmentalism.
She was asked why the EPA doesn’t stop surface mining (mountaintop removal) and she basically said because the EPA regulates pollution and water quality; the EPA does not and cannot regulate mining. That is a political excuse. They are the Environmental Protection Agency — it’s their job to protect the environment. Mountaintop removal is one of the most environmentally destructive practices in the U.S. and they must have the authority to stop it. Apparently, this is the EPA’s way of stalling a decision on mountaintop removal. Surface coal mining is especially destructive, not just to our water but to the trees, the ecology of the area, and to the land itself. There is no way to put the top back on a hill or mountain once it has been removed, and no way to completely reinstate the wildlife and balance of the ecology of the area once it has been ruined.
Unfortunately today, in conjunction with this talk, the EPA approved a surface mining operation in Ohio. They imposed supposed stringent rules on the mining operation so that it doesn’t pollute the water, but nowhere are there requirements of a carbon fee or any way for this mining to take responsibility for how it adds to global warming. This is where the EPA has to change. The EPA’s responsibilities should include protecting the human race’s ability to live in its environment–which would necessarily render coal mining obsolete. Read about the EPA’s new permit below. To see the video of this talk, visit CSPAN.org.
Below is the press release released by the EPA today in its approval of the Ohio surface mining permit. This is a blow to the environment, and it’s hard to see how this is the EPA “protecting” the country’s land and water.
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Climate Files 61 / Question the EPA
I attended the EPA Townhall Meeting and asked a good question. Everyone should question the EPA. Mine was about that nasty Canadian tar sands oil and the pipeline that is spilling oil into the beautiful northern part of one of the Great Lakes states. The EPA must not care very much about that, because they wouldn’t answer a simple question: how does a dirty oil pipeline fit in with the new green economy being promoted in the Great Lakes states? I like this EPA so much better than the last one, but it’s hard to believe it’s so easy to stump the EPA.
Also in this episode, what U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said about climate change deniers, and what President Obama said about energy and climate in his speech to the business roundtable in Washington DC. Some headlines were covered too, including the exciting news about Bloom Energy, a new company making a revolutionary new type of stand-alone power station. It sounds almost too good to be true — fuel cells that run on oxygen and biomass? Yes, and it’s already being used by companies in Silicon Valley. Here is what I wrote about it on Futurism Now.
The Delta Institute website is here.
The EPA video page where you can watch the entire Townhall meeting from February 23rd is here.
News covered:
- Poor Nations Could Be Paid to Preserve Marine CO2: UN (Reuters)
- Curbing Smokestack Emissions Tops EPA’s 2011-2013 Enforcement Goals (Greenwire)
- Groups ID Toxic Coal Ash Sites in 14 States, Demand Regulations (ENN)
- Tackling Climate Change ‘Urgent,’ President Hu Jintao Says (China Daily)
- Italy Delays New Solar Plan Again, Industry Worried
- World’s Temperature Record To Be Re-analyzed (The Independent)
- Check out the Enbridge Pipeline in my Backyard blog.
- Waste could fuel part of Spain – read here.
- Did you hear about the 126,000 gallon oil spill in northern MN, the 2nd in months?
You can download this episode here, or subscribe on Climate Files Radio.
Final song is by Galactic, “Heart of Steel feat. Irma Thomas” from the MPR song of the day podcast.
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Climate Files 51 / The Geek Files
Sea level rise in Australia, happening now.
This episode contains talks by the delegates from Stanford University and a talk by Steven Chu, a pretty geeky guy, from last weekend. Monday was Oceans Day at Copenhagens COP15, and the guys from Stanford discussed the health of the oceans and why that 350 number is so much better than that 450 number that Todd Stern seems to think is OK.
It’s impossible to keep up with everything that is going on in Copenhagen. There are groups doing interviews everywhere, press conferences, side events, Youtube debates and lots more. My hope is that everyone is keeping informed by going to the COP15 website, or the ENB report.
Presented Monday: New estimates of sea level change including the dynamics of the big ice sheets are way higher than the IPCC 2007 estimate.
Also discussed: UN Carbon-Capture Decision Faces Delay to Next Year.
Coal gassification explained.
Remember: 350 ppm is OK, 450 ppm is not OK. Bill McKibben and Al Gore also spoke, and now the heads of state are beginning to arrive. Even Prince Charles already spoke too. You could listen to speeches all day and still not hear them all.
Music at the end is a fun song by that guy from Minnesota, Bob Dylan.
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Climate Files 49 / The Climate Olympics Begin
The Copenhagen climate summit COP15 has begun, and it seems like most of the world is there.
That’s the biggest news. Coinciding with that, the EPA has passed an endangerment finding under the Clean Air Act. Could we ask for anything more? Yes, a binding legal treaty to reduce emissions, in Copenhagen. That’s what we really need. But now we know that if Congress doesn’t act on climate change legislation quickly enough, the EPA now has an obligation to regulate or otherwise stop harmful GHG emissions from hurting the health of Americans.
The finding was time to strengthen the U.S. negotiating position in Copenhagen. Good for them. In this episode you can hear two introductory press conferences on days 1 and 2 of the climate conference and also the U.S. delegate, John Pershing, stating the U.S.’s preliminary positions. They all also smack down the climate scientist emails that were illegally obtained, stating that it just won’t make any difference. There is an enormous amount of scientific data in the U.S. and from all over the world that has been independently arrived at and supports global warming claims. Watch the EPA announcement video here and you can download the Finding’s segments there too.
The mysterious Danish Text story.
LinkTV climate change videos are here.
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Climate Files 46 / Cap and Raid
Earth's damaged climate is a bit BIG to be fixed using capitalism products and trading schemes.
The cap and trade legislation has been “put off” until well after the Copenhagen summit in December. It’s pushed into spring, 2010, if then. If you want to read some better bills than cap and trade, which should be called Cap and RAID, you can check out all the other bills that intend to mitigate climate change. There are a lot of them!
This episode contains recent news and the “Huge Mistake” by the EPA attorneys gone rogue who have lots of information about cap and trade. The same rogue EPA attorneys interview on DemocracyNow here. Many environmentalists are very disappointed with the whole concept of capping and trading permits to pollute. The Carbon Tax Center site has a great list of the other, better bills here.
A Carbon Tax, Not a Cap and Trade
EU emissions trading scheme an ‘embarrassing failure’
Peru is losing its sacred glaciers to climate change. Slideshow of amazing photos is here.
Floods and Droughts: How Climate Change is Impacting Africa.
Also discussed in this episode: The Brammo Enertia electric motorcycle is now on sale at Best Buy.
Click below for the feature:
Initial Report: 2009 Brammo Enertia
One of the new, sneaky greenwash sites: GERrrrr (don’t take it seriously, folks).
Payal Parekh’s blog is here. Her interview on the Real News network, if you want to see it (the entire interview audio is in this episode) is at the Real News network ‘Cap-and-trade won’t cut it’ Pt. 2.
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Climate Files 35 / Climate and Justice
Photo from WEACT.org
Kicking off NaPodPoMo month, Futurism Now covers environmental and climate justice and EPA news. Join FN this month while we explore whether a daily podcast can be done while retaining a semblance of a life. NaPodPoMo stands for “National Podcast Post Month”. Check out the other ones participating here.
Climate justice is about climate debt, past, present and future. What is the cost of climate debt? So far, about $100 billion a year. Shifting to renewable energy will raise the cost to as much as $600 per year over the next decade. Who will pay for this? Obviously, the more poor countries can’t.
This episode contains a recording of one session of the SEJ, the Society of Environmental Journalists. SEJ 2009 was hosted by University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin, October 7-11, 2009.
The SEJ conference’s website is here.
One speaker is Leslie Fields, National Environmental Justice and Community Partnerships Director, of the Sierra Club Her topic is Climate Change, Human Health and Environmental Justice both in the US and internationally. The 2nd speaker is Jonathan Patz, Professor and Director of Global Environmental Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison. The format is a panel and there is a Q&A session.
In a lot of ways that haven’t been covered much yet — or even researched adequately — climate change promises to wreak havoc with human health. Already researchers are detecting increased rates of death from excess heat, insects, diseases and rising water.
Among the climate justice groups Leslie mentions: Environmental justice climate change initiative, or EJCC.org. Also, the Environmental Justice Forum, NLCCC.org and WEACT . . . . and many other groups around the U.S. working on climate change justice.
Poor people and people of color will be impacted more by climate change than anyone, but second will be Americans, because we are used to such a carbon-intensive life. The media has to write and talk about making this more fair, and bringing this to the attention of the public. And this is why FN is participating in NaPodPoMo.
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Climate Files 31 / Off to the Climate Races
The Senate climate bill has arrived! It’s called CEJAPA, an awful name. That stands for Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. Let’s call it the Climate Bill or the Kerry-Boxer bill. It leaves a lot to be desired, because it’s still full of coal, and gas, and it’s also not even a cap and trade bill. They are leaving that up to the Finance Committee. Are you confused yet? I explain everything, with some help, in this episode. Basically, the bill isn’t finished, and they left it that way on purpose.
Some of the help in explaining it comes from USCAN and their great consolidation of environmental groups’ statements on this bill. USCAN’s site about the bill is here, and as for the climate bill itself, that is here in full (pdf). If you don’t want to read all 821 pages of it, see the summary here (pdf).
Also, the EPA Introduced New Rules to Regulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions already! They aren’t wasting time. Read about it here. The EPA also said all 79 pending MTR coal mining permits would lead to water pollution and need further review. I like this EPA!
The frightening news continues: A six-foot/two-meter sea level rise is inevitable no matter what we do. Still, it could be worse.
‘Runaway’ melt is occurring on the Antarctica, and Greenland ice sheets. Experts find more ‘pervasive, enduring’ thinning than previously realized.
That community I tell you about is here and that 2012 movie clip is here at Fancast. Not even climate change could be as bad as that disaster — or could it?
If you are interested in the Bangkok climate change talks on-demand webcasts, they are here.
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Music: The Cult, Rain, and at the end, Santogold, Lights Out
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Climate Files 15 / Time for Pressure
Forums, conferences, and the EPA — what’s going on? This episode lets you in on what is happening in Bonn, the World Humanitarian forum, and what came out of Paris.
The World Environment Day is only a couple of days away, it’s on Friday, June 5th. Read up about some of the events that will take place around the world.
A good Daily Kos story on mountaintop removal is here.
“Climate change is here. It has a human face. This report details the nevertheless silent crisis occurring around the world today as a result of global climate change. . . . . . Climate change is a serious threat to over half of the world’s population. Half a billion people are at extreme risk. Worst affected are the world’s poorest groups, who lack any responsibility for causing climate change.”
– Report, The Anatomy of a Silent Crisis (link below)
Think China isn’t doing enough? “Greenhouse gas emissions are rising because consumption is rising. Unless we address this, we cannot prevent climate breakdown. It doesn’t matter where production takes place: the problem is that we are consuming too much.” — the Guardian
Earth2100 will be airing on June 2nd, 2009 from 9-11 pm on ABC. Also, watch The Daily Show from Monday night to see Bob Woodruff talk about Earth2100. Hope everyone enjoys the show — I’ll be reviewing it on my Futurism Now news site.
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Climate Change is already responsible for 300,000 deaths a year. You can find the Global Humanitarian report, Anatomy of a Silent Crisis, (pdf) and download it on this page.
See information on the Bonn Climate talks here. They are ongoing until June 12.
NASF and others urge Congress to consider forest biomass in energy legislation. Read more here.
CONTACT CONGRESS
Here is the main number for Congress – the Senate and House – in Washington, DC. 202 225-3121
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FN09 / The EPA Rules
The EPA rules! Last Friday, April 17th, the EPA released a preliminary ruling on carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions, at last. These greenhouse gases are pollutants, and they are harming human health, now and for future generations. Finally the U.S. has the opportunity to lead on something worthwhile again. We need to attack this problem aggressively, creating green jobs and a green economy, now that the Obama administration is taking steps to solve the climate crisis. Read the EPA finding here and download the 133 page explanation on this page, as well as instructions to submit comments.
A portion of an interview about cap and dividend is included, from Congressman Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat representing Maryland’s Eighth District, who was interviewed on Earthbeat Radio. Here are the bills discussed: H.R. 1862– Cap and Dividend Act of 2009 (Van Hollen’s bill) and H.R. 1337 — America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009 (Larsen’s bill).
You will also hear from Friends of the Earth — Michelle Chan — on the subject of why cap and trade isn’t so great.
European cap and trade works, a little bit at least — they have cut emissions 4-5%, but that’s not enough.
Climate Change Congress — where you can find videos there of all three days of the conference, including a transcript of Sir Nicolas Stern’s speech that is played in this episode.
LA Times story — What will global warming look like? Look to Australia. They are seeing droughts, wildfires, and floods, just like what is starting in the U.S.
Cap and trade problems are abundant — From Counterpunch.org
The Stern Report — The Economics of Climate Change — can be found here.
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FN03 / Coaled and Carbonated
Are you kidding me?
Fight the recession or fight global warming? We can do both. This episode covers Carbon news, carbon basics, what we’re facing, cap and trade versus cap and dividend, coal and a portion of an interview with Ted Nace about coal. Join me for fascinating climate info.
Solar did pretty well in the stimulus package, as described by Vote Solar.
Cap and dividend vs. cap and trade — it’s a confusing issue. This episode attempts to explain the difference with some help from Peter Barnes of CapandDividend.org. According to the experts, you could make money from conservation combined with cap and dividend in the form of a monthly check from the government, if it’s ever implemented. New legislation on cap and return, or cap and dividend, from at least 3 members of Congress, is in the works.
Link to Washington Post Article on how they like cap and dividend too is here.
Includes 14 minutes of an episode of an Electric Politics podcast called “Of Coal and Corporations”. You can listen to the whole episode on George Kenney’s EP website. He did a good interview with Ted Nace, who started the immense Coalswarm website. Nace is also the author of the book Gangs of America which you can download free.
Weigh in on Obama’s trip to Canada on Feb. 19th and sign the petition against the Alberta tar sands oil. http://www.obama2canada.org/
Music: 20 seconds of Enya, and 10 seconds of Moby — “Find My Baby” and at end– “What” by Ian France.
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